New motherboard - problems.

DavidNW

DavidNW

Big Geek
Well, just installed a new motherboard and thought everything was okay. The PC powered-up first time - CPU fan spinning & got to POST. I then went into BIOS to configure devices, etc. Both HDs are showing up in BIOS, along with the RAM, so everything seems fine as such.

However, the operating system on my first HD (XP) will not load up at all - won't even get to the splash screen - just a blank screen - then it rebooted and repeated itself time and time again.

Anyway, I turned the PC off for an hour or so - when I restarted it - it would not POST at all - just a blank screen. I think I must have missed configuring something in BIOS somehow - but if I did, I don't know what.

Any ideas on this one, guys?

Many thanks,

David
 
Hi,

You could reset the CMOS on the motherboard and this will make the bios "forget" all the changes you made. on the majority of motherboards this is usually done by moving a jumper from one set of pins to another, leaving it for 20 seconds and moving it back, however some motherboards may offer a push button switch. Have a look in you motherboard manuel in find out how to reset yours. in addition to this the abscense of RAM stops a computer booting complety so while your resseting you cmos remove the ram module/s and put them back in and make sure there properly inserted.

Hope this helps Dave :cool:
 
Yes, tried resetting the CMOS, but it made no difference. I'm having the motherboard tested locally, so i'll see how it goes from there.

There was a slight burning smell when I powered up for the first time, so my guess is that the motherboard is defective. I installed it according to the manual and double-checked that everything was okay.
 
have you tried a long BIOS reset

basically, turn machine off & do a standard reset, but, leave the jumper on pins 2 & 3 for an hour, then replace jumper to pins 1 & 2

this works because sometimes a residual voltage remains after a standard BIOS reset

BTW: hope it helps :good:
 
No, Dave. I just reset the BIOS for the normal amount of time. However, I'll bear what you have said for the next time :P . The board is being tested, so I hope it's just a dodgy board and I can RMA it for a new one.
 
UPDATE:

Well, I don't know how I managed it, but apparently, I've screwed the processor on installation! :doh: Come to think of it - when I first started to troubleshoot the PC not booting, I took off the heatsink and noticed that the that the imprint of thermal paste transferred by the thermal paste I had put onto the processor die was not in the centre of the underside of the heatsink (like it should be) - it was to off centre towards the side of the heatsink (hope you understand).

I thought there was only one way a heatsink could go on because of the 'step' on the underside. There is no way I could have put the processor in incorrectly as we all know.

Anyway, have ordered a new processor because the repair shop said it had sustained 'heat damage'.
 
i'm beginning to think that you are not just unlucky, you are cursed by bill gates :D :D

well always format the pc when you use a new mobo that clearly make the system stable

use arctic silver 5 thermal paste for cooling and don't use the athlon xp stock fans again beacuse they keep the cpu as a fireball use another trusted brand cpu cooler i recommend thermaltake for you beacuse i have seen a lot of duron and barthon core amd cpus burned beacuse of the stock fan

next time buy a labtop they are tested for these kinds of problems anyway :D
 
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